Thursday, 12 November 2009

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

The Movie starts with a title sequence. The writing is grey and smokey, the font is like that off of a grave stone. From the writing style we can already tell its a horror film. The non-diegetic music is ominous, sad and classical in style.

Then music changes, it becomes more orchestral, as we see a red liquid drop on to parchment paper. The shot is an extreme close-up. The shot then fades into two people's hands holding each other in a loving way, we can see that they are wearing old style clothes, the shot is also in close-up.

The dramatic music then changes as the shot changes. The shot is that of paper with writing on it, it says "the last will and testament", there is then a slow pull back to a pan across of a different text. There is then an extreme close-up of someone signing a will.

There is then the same shot that we started with, the red dripping on paper, but this time the audience is shown that it is wax which is going to be sealed. The entire sequence is in close-ups to create mystery. The music gets more intense which makes the signing of the document seem like a bad thing.

There is then an extreme close-up of the seal. The scene then changes to a crest on the door which is the same as the seal. The shot then tilts up to show a man in a carriage which makes the audience realise that he is Van Gerrat. The atmosphere is foggy and dark, there is lightning in the sky, this mise-en-scene is a typical genre convention used in horror. The action then slows down and the tension stops, fooling the audience into thinking that there is nothing to be worried about..